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Road to Citizenship

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11 years ago senior Reon Ogbeide began his road to citizenship when he moved 4,832 miles away from Stuttgart, Germany to Rogers, Arkansas. Ogbeide overcame obstacles when he moved to the United States. One of the biggest obstacles he faced was learning English in a short amount of time.

“I lived with my grandparents until the end of July so that I could learn English,” Ogbeide said. “I moved to Springfield three months after that and started the first grade here.”

Ogbeide is facing a tough situation since he is turning 18 in a few months.

“At this time, I don’t have a social security number,” Ogbeide said. “I cannot get a driver’s license, a part time job, or even start my enrollment process for college.”

Ogbeide is currently trying to obtain his permanent residency in the United States. If he doesn’t get his legalities resolved when he turns 18 he is even more likely to be deported.

“The immigration process has slowed down due to so many illegal immigrants rushing to become legal,” Ogbeide said.

There are now long waits that cause limited options for the all the people trying to obtain citizenship.

“Trump made it a big point in his presidency to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA),” Ogbeide said. “DACA is something I was going to file for; but, my lawyer advised against it because if I was to file for it and Trump terminated it, it would be detrimental to my immigration process.”

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website they are no longer accepting initial requests for DACA. Because of the complications the Trump administration has caused to this program it has proven to become even more costly for Ogbeide.

“The fees are going to cost approximately $2,000.00,” Ogbeide said. “I have also been told the filing fees for citizenship can cost up to $1,300.00 USCIS along with many other fees and costs that make my goal of becoming a citizen unobtainable.”

Ogbeide has started a Gofundme and has already reached $2,465 of his $5,000 goal.